Fairbanks area B-17 wreckage?

[bdk]

Anyone have info, photos or coordinates?

Hey Ralph,

Im from Fairbanks and if you take off from FAI and head east an 20-40nm you will find a crashed b-17 there are a coulpe of theses up there as the air force did cold weather training. Thought you might like to know~!

Michael

http://www.oshkosh365.org/ok365_Discuss ... picid=4557

[DaveG]

Anyone have info, photos or coordinates?

Hey Ralph,

Im from Fairbanks and if you take off from FAI and head east an 20-40nm you will find a crashed b-17 there are a coulpe of theses up there as the air force did cold weather training. Thought you might like to know~!

Michael

http://www.oshkosh365.org/ok365_Discuss ... picid=4557

Eielson AFB is east of FAI and contains the B-29 "Lady of the Lake." Maybe he's thinking of it?

[warbird1]

Anyone have info, photos or coordinates?

Hey Ralph,

Im from Fairbanks and if you take off from FAI and head east an 20-40nm you will find a crashed b-17 there are a coulpe of theses up there as the air force did cold weather training. Thought you might like to know~!

Michael

http://www.oshkosh365.org/ok365_Discuss ... picid=4557

Eielson AFB is east of FAI and contains the B-29 "Lady of the Lake." Maybe he's thinking of it?

There are plenty of crashed warplanes up there in Alaska. My co-pilot that I flew with recently used to be a bush pilot up in Alaska and he told me that he had seen the wrecks of "tons of warbirds". He knew of several B-17 wrecks with some B-24's and others. A lot of the wrecks may not be known publicly, but most of the locals know the locations of many of them. I specifically asked him about Japanese wrecks and he said they were all out in the Aleutians. Finding a wreck up there is the easy part. The hard part is getting it out since a lot of them are on government, protected or DOD land which is pretty much untouchable without significant amounts of paperwork and permissions.

[JBoyle]

When I worked at the USAF Survival School, I came across a circa 1953 National Geographic Magazine with an article about the Survival School in Alaska.

There were photos of C-82 wreckage used as "props" for training. I particularly recall a tailboom sticking out of a lake, I belive it was near Anchorage.

[Second Air Force]

I'll contact my cousin and ask him about this matter. He flew with the Cold Weather unit in Alaska during the War.

S

[whistlingdeath77]

This seems like it's impossible in todays day and age with big money going and buying what they want that there's still warbids out there waiting to be claimed.

[The Inspector]

What you may not understand is the Great Land (Alaska) government has declared EVERY airplane wreck inside it's borders to be more off limits than the Navy ever thought of! A friend expressed interest in recovering the remains of his Dads PA-12, that this individual was riding in as a kid when it crashed, and he was told by the Land of Caribou Barbie not to even ever ask or think about it ever again or he would be thrown in irons, shot, hanged, drawn and quartered, charged a late fee on parking, and generally not treated very nice by the Alaska State Troopers. So money is not an issue, attitude and stubborness are-I lived there, they don't think rationally some times-

[CraigQ]

What you may not understand is the Great Land (Alaska) government has declared EVERY airplane wreck inside it's borders to be more off limits than the Navy ever thought of! A friend expressed interest in recovering the remains of his Dads PA-12, that this individual was riding in as a kid when it crashed, and he was told by the Land of Caribou Barbie not to even ever ask or think about it ever again or he would be thrown in irons, shot, hanged, drawn and quartered, charged a late fee on parking, and generally not treated very nice by the Alaska State Troopers. So money is not an issue, attitude and stubborness are-I lived there, they don't think rationally some times-

Well, that's not entirely correct. The hoops that have to be jumped through are getting the wreckage out without damaging the tundra or terrain it's in. Before I moved back to the lower 48 a co worker wrecked his pacer and ended up arranging a helo lift to get it out. It's very expensive to get caught damaging terrain up there. once a hunting party decided to drive their trucks in to pick up their kills (Caribou) instead of packing them out like everyone else. They got two trucks stuck in the tundra. They were not allowed to extract the truck until winter when the tundra was froze solid. Of course by then the trucks were very well cold soaked. Fines were also imposed for damage to the terrain.

However, it is true that the State of Alaska has declared all WW2 airrcraft wrecks and other military war site remains off limits and protected.

Craig Q